A special UN committee finds that Israel “intentionally causes death, starvation and serious injury” in the Gaza Strip. Methods of war which “correspond to the characteristics of genocide”.
Is Israel carrying out genocide in the Gaza Strip? The UN has decided. The methods of war employed by the Jewish state “correspond to the characteristics of genocide,” declared a UN Special Committee on Thursday, November 14. To explain this conclusion, the committee highlights the “massive civilian casualties and the conditions imposed on Palestinians there intentionally endangering their lives”. The report targets Israeli practices affecting human rights in Gaza.
“Through its siege of Gaza, its obstruction of humanitarian aid, its targeted attacks and killing of civilians and aid workers, despite repeated calls from the UN, binding orders from the International Court of Justice and resolutions of the Security Council, Israel is intentionally causing death, starvation and serious injury,” the statement said. Israel “uses starvation as a method of war and inflicts collective punishment on the Palestinian population,” the committee adds. In October, the UN put the number of Gazans displaced by the war at 1.9 million. The total population was estimated at some 2.4 million at the start of the war.
A “deadly” mixture
Israeli forces used more than 25,000 tons of explosives in the Gaza Strip, “the equivalent of two nuclear bombs,” or roughly twice the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, the report said. “By destroying vital water, sanitation and food systems, and contaminating the environment, Israel has created a deadly mix of crises that will inflict grave harm on generations to come,” the committee denounces.